


Demons That Haunt the Force

by clasesolangelo



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Cute, Drabble, Empress Padmé Amidala, F/M, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I'm Sorry, Padme's dress, Rey Needs A Hug, Rey actually needs a hug, THE DRESS, What am I doing, only describes part of the RoS movie, please don't hate this, please hug Rey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22248538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clasesolangelo/pseuds/clasesolangelo
Summary: Rey is having nightmares about familiar faces she's never seen and powers she shouldn't have. Ben took her hand and joined the resistance with her, but the nightmares still plague her. She's also finding herself staring at the General's son more than she would like, and every time he looks at her she fumbles for the right thing to say.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. You Dropped a Tree on my BB8 unit?!

**Author's Note:**

> Good morning everyone! This is a short little work that just popped into my head. It covers a little bit of the middle of RoS, but I'm not rewriting the whole movie, that would be a little much. So I hope you enjoy this tiny little thing! If not then I'm sorry? I guess? It will feature three of Padme's outfits from the prequels! And we all love a good tom-boy-wears-a-dress scene (thanks 80's movies)!

Ben.

Ben.

Ben.

I woke up with a start, sweat dropping down my face and heart racing. I never remember dreams that leave me sweaty and jumpy. I shook my head a few times and got off the floor from where I fell off the slightly raised bed. There was no window here, so I had no way of knowing where the sun was in the sky or what time it was. I threw on some tight pants and a shirt so I could meditate and also run the training course in the woods like usual.  
But this time Ben would be with me.  
Ben Solo, previously Kylo Ren, decided to come back with me after all. He offered his hand to me and I offered mine to him. After he killed Snoke, there was nothing keeping him with those people. With him out of the picture then Hux was now in charge and even more problematic than Ben ever was.  
My door shut behind me as I walked through the hallways and out to the open. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but the sky was that light blue when you knew there wasn’t much time until the sun came up. Being able to see the ground clearly, I walked the well-known path to my personal meditating spot, intending on trying to reach Luke. On the way I tried not to look at where the Falcon usually rested, but I painfully remembered that Poe, Rose, and Finn had taken it out for a mission and hadn’t returned yet.  
A few minutes later and I was where I needed to be. The rocks on the ground floated with me as I started my meditation. I felt my feet lift off the ground as I closed my eyes. I felt the energy through the rocks, going down into the ground. Death and decay gave way to the brand new life currently forming. I feel everything that feeds on that new life, adding to a circle of ongoing life and death, a system keeping everything in complete balance.  
“Be with me.” I muttered to the wind, hoping it would help me focus on the past Jedi that would come to me, specifically Luke. “Be with me.” I whispered again. “Be with me.”  
“No matter how many times you say that it doesn’t mean that he can hear you.” My eyes shot wide open, focus breaking and therefore falling. Before I reached the ground I flung my arms out and stopped it. I looked over mid-air to see Ben Solo smirking. I rolled my eyes and landed on my feet.  
“And can I help you?” Ben looked a lot better now than when I’d seen him. He wore loser clothes now than his black ensemble and he was wearing a smile. His smile is my favorite part of him joining the resistance. He looks much better with a smile than a scowl. Speaking of smiling, that’s what he was doing now.  
“You know you’re not going to reach anyone that way.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “You can’t just say it and have it there.” I sighed.  
“I know, that doesn’t matter. I just use it as a centering mechanism.” Ben smiled again.  
“You keep using fancy mechanic talk.” I rolled my eyes. “You remind me of my dad sometimes.”  
“Good, that means you have to listen to me and do as I say.” He threw his head back and gave a great big laugh.  
“I didn’t listen to him when I was younger and I’m certainly not going to listen to you right now either.” He was still smiling and it still brightened my day. “Come on, Rey, let’s go.”  
“And where, pray, are we going?” I said as I fell in step next to him.  
“We’re going to wish everyone else good morning.” I finally noticed that the sun was fully in the sky now, and the camp was significantly more alive than when I was first awake.  
“How long have I been out there?” I wondered mindlessly.  
“Ever since you fell out of bed with a nightmare again.” Ben said with an undertone of concern. “So, want to talk about it?” He ducked his head a little, like he did when he was trying to make something light.  
“You know as well as I do that I don’t remember them.” He sighed.  
“See, I think you do and you just don’t want to remember. That’s why they keep coming back, so that you do. There might be something important in there that you need.” I scoffed.  
“Yeah? Like what? What could possibly be so important in a dream?”  
“You know my grandfather used to have visions in his dreams. What if you’re having visions?”  
“One problem there, Solo: I’m not a Skywalker. I’m a nameless kid who doesn’t know what she’s doing.” Ben laughed again.  
“Nameless or not I think you know exactly what you’re doing or you wouldn’t have been so focused on your meditation. You’re doing better than I ever thought you would without me.” I sighed.  
“Your mom is a wonderful teacher.” Ben nodded. Things were still a little tense between him and his mother, but only because he still felt terrible about what he’d done. Leia had forgiven him the moment I brought him back with me.  
“She is. I missed her when I went away.”  
“She did what she thought was best, and it might still be what was best.” Ben laughed a little.  
“I doubt that, but I guess I’ll allow it.” I rolled my eyes.  
“You have no choice. You have to do what I say from now on, remember?” I smiled at him and he blushed.  
“No I don’t.” I looked down and away from him, hoping my own blush wasn’t showing too much. As we walked into camp I saw General Organa herself around a table with other operatives eating. As soon as she saw us her face lit up.  
“Rey, Ben!” I nudged Ben.  
“Hah, my name came first this time.” Ben scoffed and bumped me back.  
“So what, my name came first yesterday.”  
“I’m putting that on my wall when we’re done here.”  
“Doesn’t matter, my wall still has more tallies than yours does.” It was my turn to scoff.  
“For now, Solo, for now.” He smiled down at me with kind eyes and I averted mine. We reached Leia’s table before I could think about it.  
“So, you finally found her.” I smiled at her.  
“I was where I always am, General.” She smiled warmly at me.  
“Of course. I told you there was no need to worry about her.” She looked pointedly at Ben, who turned red.  
“I wasn’t the one that was worried about her!” I smiled and hit him, wanting to actually hit him for some reason.  
“Whatever you say.” She shrugged. “Join us before you start.”  
“Yes mom.” Ben said as he guided me toward a table. “Sorry about her, she just-.”  
“No, no it’s fine.” I looked at her and remembered the question I had for her. “Give me just a minute?” I asked.  
“For you? Anything.” He nodded his head and I went back.  
“General Organa, I was wondering if you knew when the Falcon was going to come back? Or if they’ve been in touch so far?” Leia smiled.  
“Captain Dameron contacted me this morning, they’re doing fine. They should be back today or tomorrow.” I smiled.  
“I just hope Poe hasn’t completely destroyed the Falcon.” Leia smiled.  
“I’m sure he’s taking as much care with it as he can.” I laughed.  
“Have you met Poe Dameron? I don’t think careful is his style.”  
“While that’s true, he’s also a very skilled pilot. Rey, don’t worry. Finn will be fine too, you know.”  
“I’m not worried about him in the least.” Leia laughed.  
“Can I ask why?”  
“He knows how to handle himself in a fight, I’m not worried about it. He kicked Ben’s ass when they first met.” Leia laughed outright at that.  
“And somehow that doesn’t surprise me.” I smiled at that. “Well then, they should be back soon my dear, you need not worry.” I nodded.  
“Thank you, so much.” I waved at her and turned around to see Ben talking to someone, a girl with blonde hair that I hadn’t seen much, and when I saw her she was always around Ben. A little pit of anger stirred in my stomach and I don’t know why. I swallowed it as I started walking back to the table, the blonde girl waving her goodbye. I don’t think she’s ever stayed to meet me and I’ve never asked who she is. When Ben sat back down he waved at me as I came closer.  
“So, how was my mother?”  
“She’s fine and so is the Falcon.” Ben snorted.  
“You care way too much about that ship.” I rolled my eyes.  
“I most certainly do not, and her name is Falcon, not ‘that ship’ thank you.” Ben kept laughing.  
“You’re doing it again.”  
“Doing what?” I asked as he broke a roll in two.  
“Caring more about the ship than people.” I rolled my eyes with a laugh.  
“I am not.” Ben smiled with half a role in his mouth.  
“Sure you’re not.” He nodded at my plate. I looked at it and lost my appetite, my nightmare and that blonde girl still on my mind. I picked at it to appease Ben’s eyes at least.  
Routine was for the morning: training, cleaning, going through the stats of the base, checking communications, sending out communications. Ben had some of the bulkier work while I helped Leia with communications. I usually finished before he did so I got to meditate more than he did.  
“No fair that you get here before I do.” I smiled as I fell back to the ground.  
“You will just not stop interrupting me. I think you’re trying to stop my progress in the Force so you can always say you beat me.” Ben laughed again, short and full of life.  
“As if I would need to resort to that.” I gave him a challenging look.  
“Would you like to put your light saber where your mouth is?” Ben smirked back.  
“Whatever you say.” We both took out sabers, me taking Luke’s old one. “On three?” I nodded and we both bent down to face the trail. BB8 came by to watch. “Three!” Ben took off first and I took off after.  
“No fair, Solo!” I yelled after him. We went through the course, dodging floating balls that shot at you. We both went through the balance beams and over the hills, using the Force to propel us. At one point the trail diverged and Ben went to the right, so I went left. As I was running, I heard something.  
Rey.  
The wind seemed to whisper, but this wasn’t the wind, it was something else, something bad. I stopped and looked around, feeling something there.  
“Who’s there?” I called, holding my saber at defense.  
Rey.  
“Who are you?” I shouted. Flashes of broken memories flew through my mind and I shook my head to clear it, but nothing worked. I felt electricity in the air, snapping at the ends of my hair.  
Rey.  
“Who are you?” I shouted, seeing more than I ever wanted to, feeling more and more electricity. Suddenly a jolt of pain stabbed through my arm and I cried out in surprise. “Ow!” I looked around and saw one of those balls shooting at me. I tried as hard as I could to stop the damn thing, cutting down a lot of trees to try and stop it. I eventually stopped it when I threw my saber at it and it pierced it to a tree.  
Beeping alerted me to BB8 stuck under a tree.  
“Oh no, BB8!” I used the Force to move the tree and BB8 rolled out, orange and white body a little dirty from the tree. “I am so sorry.” I bent down to look at him. “Can you forgive me?” He beeped a sequence that basically meant yes. I smiled at him. “Good BB8.”  
“Rey?” I heard Ben shout for me before I saw him. “Told you I was better.” I rolled my eyes as he looked around. “You okay? Looks like a mess…” He looked at the angry red marks where the fake blasts hit. “What happened?” He asked slower. I opened my mouth to answer, but the Falcon flew above us and I smiled.  
“They’re back.” I ran past him, BB8 rolling right behind me. When we got to the Falcon’s usual spot Poe was still landing it. It was then that I noticed how bad a shape it was in. “POE!” I yelled, knowing he couldn’t hear me.  
“Oof, that doesn’t look great.” Ben winced.  
“What did he do?” I yelled as the ship touched down. I looked down at BB8 who just beeped. “What is wrong with your owner, BB8?” The door finally opened and Finn came out first. I smiled and ran over to the door, pleased to see everyone.  
“Rey.” Finn smiled at me and hugged me tightly. It felt nice to see someone I know well.  
“Welcome back.” I told him as I returned his hug.  
“-just that we had to go into hyperdrive and that’s how we lost them once and for all.”  
“WHO went into hyperdrive?” I shouted as Poe exited the Falcon. Poe looked from me to BB8 and his face went into rage.  
“Why does my BB8 unit look like he was scrapped!”  
“Why does the Falcon look like it’s falling apart?” I shouted right back. He wasn’t listening to me because BB8 was currently telling him about what I accidentally did.  
“You dropped a tree on him?” Poe turned his angry gaze to me.  
“It’s better than taking the Falcon into hyperdrive! The engine combines aren’t ready for jumps!”  
“MY BB8 unit was abused! It’s better than a lose part!”  
“This isn’t a lose part, you could have broken the entire ship, and it looks like you did!”  
“We didn’t have a choice, but you did and you dropped a tree on my BB8 unit.”  
“That was an accident, what you did was blatant disregard for the Falcon or her lack of ability!”  
“You dropped a tree on a tiny, helpless unit!”  
“You-!” Ben’s hand on my arm stopped me.  
“Enough.” He said softly. Poe stiffened when Ben came over, as he always did. I sighed. “What matters is everyone is safe and back now.” Poe huffed.  
“Yeah, my BB8 is real safe with trees and Rey around.” I stepped forward, out of Ben’s grasp, closer to him.  
“At least I know how to pilot that thing.” I growled.  
“GOOD! Because you should have been there, but where were you? You were here, with him, doing your Jedi nonsense. We needed you with us.” It was Poe’s turn to get in my face. “But you chose not to go.” He growled.  
“Captain Dameron.” General Organa had arrived and both of us split apart, Ben dragging me further away from Poe. “I told Rey she needed to train with us here. We need her to be at full strength if we’re going to win.” Poe huffed.  
“Fine.” Poe and BB8 wandered deeper into the camp while the rest of the people that went on the mission kept unpacking.  
“Rey.” Ben said with a tone of authority.  
“Yep.” Ben sighed.  
“Rey, what happened when I found you in the woods?”  
“I may or may not have accidentally cut down a few trees and one of them may or may not have landed on…BB8.” Ben sighed.  
“What happened?” I shrugged.  
“I don’t know, the stupid little ball kept hitting me and it kind of just happened.” Ben sighed again.  
“I can see that. Why did you lose focus?” I shrugged. “Rey, you need to-.”  
“Look, it’s fine, I got it.” I snapped, a little harsher than I wanted to and, and sighed. “It’s fine.”  
“It doesn’t seem like everything is fine, Rey.” Ben’s voice was laced with worry. “Rey, you have to help me help you.” I looked at the smoking Falcon.  
“I’m going to go help them with that.” I snuck out of his grip to go examine the damage that Poe did to my baby. Thankfully it didn’t seem like anything too terrible was going on, but he did manage to damage it fairly badly. I sighed as I started to help clean it up. I ignored the Jedi stuff for the rest of the day to fix the Falcon up for her next mission, which did not make Ben or Leia happy. I knew they weren’t happy because when I finally came back after dark with Finn and Rose from the Falcon, Ben and Leia were both giving me looks.  
“Well, you’re dead.” Rose joked.  
“She’s only dead if they catch her.” Finn stated with a smile. I smirked.  
“That’s true, and I’m very fast.”  
“Yes you are.” We all laughed at that and sat at a table. I looked over to where Ben and Leia were at the same table and noticed the blonde next to him, sitting almost in his lap. I think Rose followed my gaze.  
“Well, she’s certainly trying to make her move.” Finn laughed.  
“Hey, you got to shoot your shot sometime.” Finn shrugged. “I don’t see him complaining either.”  
“As long as neither of them are glaring at me, I think I’ll be good.” I laughed with them, realizing that I missed them more than I thought.  
“Room for one more?” I looked up to see Poe Dameron standing there with his hands in his pockets. I smiled.  
“As long as you’re not still mad at me for dropping a tree on BB8.”  
“I’m not as long as you’re not mad at me for breaking the Falcon.” I smiled  
“She’ll be fine.” Poe returned the smile and sat down.  
“BB8 is already fine.” The three of them fell into easy conversation while I was happy to be there. I chanced a couple of glances at Ben every now and again, but he was always looking at the blonde, not minding her obvious flirtations.  
When it was well past time for everyone to be in bed, I was still sitting by dim light. Finn, Rose, and Poe had all left a while ago, so had Leia and Ben (and Ben’s toy). It was just me sitting there with almost no one around, which I didn’t mind.  
Rey.  
The voice again. I stood up and followed where I thought it came from, but there was nothing. I sighed and was about to turn back from the trails, but something kept me there.  
Visions of lightning, Ben, and a face that should be dead.  
I clutched my head and shook it, willing the images out of my head. When I opened my eyes it looked like there was lighting coming out of the trees, but it must have been my imagination.  
“Rey?” I jumped around to see Ben’s tall form lingering in the light, bathing him in a halo.  
“You scared me.”  
“I know, you looked deep in thought and in pain. What’s going on? You know you can tell me.” I sighed.  
“I know, but its weird and I don’t know what’s going on and I just…don’t know what to tell you.” Ben smiled softly.  
“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” I only nodded in response. “I mean I would like you to, but I’m not going to make you.”  
“Really? I thought you “could take what you wanted” anyway?” I used air quotes from the first time we met and he laughed again. I like Ben’s laugh.  
“I’m going to pay for that more than once, aren’t I.”  
“You’re going to pay for that for the rest of my life.” I laughed and he groaned with a smile.  
“Oh, come on! Don’t be like that! Forgive and forget, am I right?”  
“No way in hell, Solo.” I smirked.  
“I’m going to find something to hold against you one of these days.”  
“Good luck with that because I am basically perfect.” Ben snorted and shook his smiling head.  
“Your ego rivals that of my father.” He looked at me. “You’re basically my dad.”  
“Good, now go to bed son, you’ll tire yourself out.” Ben rolled his eyes.  
“No, no thank you, that will be all.” I giggled a little.  
“I think we need to keep going with this. I’m enjoying myself.” Ben huffed.  
“I can tell, which is why we need to put a stop to it.” I smiled.  
“No way, not if it gets me further than you.” Ben let out a noise.  
“So that’s what this is about! Then I’m going to train harder. I guess I’ll have to start waking up to nightmares before dawn and then go meditate for hours after.” He gave me a pointed look.  
“How do you even know about me waking up?” I asked.  
“I felt it. You know our bond isn’t broken, it just happens less because now we’re always together.” He brushed my arm lightly. “I could feel your fear and it woke me up.” I ducked my head.  
“Sorry, I didn’t know.” Ben put a big hand on my shoulder.  
“Rey, don’t apologize. Nightmares happen, they’re scary, it’s okay.”  
“Does that mean you know what my dream was about?” I looked up at Ben to see him shaking his head.  
“Not unless I were to read your mind, which I haven’t.”  
“Surprising, for someone who can just take what he wants.” Ben groaned.  
“Again? I’m feeling less bad for you.” I snorted.  
“Good, I don’t need you to feel bad for me.”  
“Doesn’t mean I won’t.” I rolled my eyes.  
“You’re wasting your time.” I said in a sing-song voice.  
“Don’t think so.” He replied in a sing-song voice to mock me. I rolled my eyes but couldn’t stop the smile forming on my face. “So I’ll see you tomorrow morning, bright and rested? My Rey of shining sun?” I groaned loudly.  
“Not that again.” Ben laughed.  
“No, I think if you’re going to be my father then I get to call you my Rey of shining sun.” He smiled. “I like it.”  
“Well I’m glad you like it.” Ben laughed.  
“Come now, don’t dump on my happy parade!”  
“I can and I will forever.” Ben looked at me.  
“I think I can tolerate it.” I sighed.  
“Go to bed, Solo.”  
“Only if you do.”  
“You know I’m going to bed, we’re at my room.” He sighed.  
“I know. Just get sleep, okay?” I nodded. “And actually sleep.”  
“I will, I will. Now go, sleep your failure off.”  
“And on that sad note, I will go to sleep to rest up and beat the snot out of you tomorrow.” He smiled sweetly and softly at me. “Goodnight Rey.” He wished softly.  
“Goodnight Ben.” He smiled one last time before he was off to his own room. I sighed as I entered my room to begin the mundane tasks of getting ready to sleep. I changed into my usual pajamas and put my hair up to keep it out of my mouth in my sleep. I pulled back the two blankets on my bed and got in, tired and ready to sleep.


	2. Fixing the Falcon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What it takes to fix a spaceship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for coming back! I hope you like this one as much as you did the last one!

Visions of lightning and wrinkled faces kept haunting my dreams. I was somewhere cold, somewhere dark. The stones were wet, there were people screaming around me, and a bolt of lightning struck me in the chest, throwing me off my bed and onto the floor. I gasped for air as pain started to shoot up my arms where I landed on them. I looked around in a panic to make sure I wasn’t on that terrible planet. I used my feet to back myself into the wall. The cool wall on my back helped calm me down a little.   
After a little bit I could finally stand I walked back outside in total darkness, no sign of light or life. I sighed and looked to the Falcon, making my way to her to maybe get some work done on her. The lights that surround the Falcon at night were set up and some of them were on. The lights weren’t in the place that I wanted to get into, but there were some places that I could work on with the lights.   
I went back to my room and changed into one of my old outfits that I could get dirty and headed back out, sleep poking at my eye and tiredness weighing me down a little bit. I climbed a ladder to get to the left side and began looking around at what I could fix without making parts or fishing for parts somewhere else. I took out some of the trash metal that was stuck in there, torn off by one of Poe’s moves no doubt. I kept taking the trash out, cutting and tearing and throwing the scrap into a pile by the bottom of my ladder. When I was done, I was basically at the inside of the Falcon. I took some wires and fixed those, keeping my hands busy with the inside of where I was.  
I finally looked up with the sun was starting to crest over the mountains surrounding us. I nodded and jumped off the ladder where the scrap metal was. I might need that to make something else, so I brought it all to a table as a placeholder. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and turned on some of the other lights to keep working on the Falcon. I climbed the ladder for a fifth time that morning when my ladder was shaking. I held on to the sides as tightly as I could and looked down to find BEN SOLO shaking the ladder.  
“Fall down here and then fall back asleep.” I sighed.  
“No way.” I croaked. “I still have work to do.”  
“Rey, come on!” Ben yelled from the ground. I swung my leg over the top of the ladder to sit on the top and look around. “Come down here young lady.”  
“I could be older than you!”  
“No way in hell.” He shouted back up.   
“Come on, I wanted to finish this project at least!”   
“Rey this isn’t something you spend a few hours on, it’s something you’re going to spend days on, days that you should be training.” I sighed. “Don’t give me that tone of sigh.”  
“I’ll give you whatever kind of sigh I want. I’ll have help, but we need to get the Falcon back in order before we can do anything.”  
“You love that ship more than you love literally anything or anyone else.” Ben shouted up. I rolled my eyes.  
“Ben, this ship has to get fixed and the sooner we do that then the sooner we can start planning our next move.” Ben groaned louder.  
“You’re missing the point.” He ran a hand through his fluffy hair. “Come down here Rey.”  
“No way in hell. You come up here. This is your dad’s ship, you should be up here with it.” I yanked on a piece of metal that was stuck.  
“You and I both have things to do, like the same things to do.”   
“Would you let me fix this ship today? What if I promise to get the bulk done today and then we can pick it up tomorrow?”   
“No, no you may not!”  
“Oh come on, Ben!”  
“No, as your teacher I said no!” I laughed out loud.  
“Nice try, Solo, but you’re not my teacher!”  
“That’s right, I am your teacher.” On the other side of the ladder where I couldn’t see was General Organa. “And I think I’ll be relinquishing my teacher duties to Ben. He knows more than I do, so it would make more sense.”  
“But that means I have to do what he says.”   
“Yes, it does, but he won’t do anything bad to you and he won’t put you in any real danger, I hope. This should work out just fine, in fact this should be great!” I sighed.  
“I don’t think you realize the full gravity of the situation you’ve put me in.” Ben laughed.  
“No she doesn’t, and let’s hope it stays that way.” Ben smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. “Now come down and let’s go.” I sighed.  
“Fine, just let me get this piece of metal out of the way for whoever does fix it today.”  
“Nothing much left to fix.”  
“Actually I was going to work on the hyperdrive function after I finished this section of the Falcon.” I said. “I’m the only one that can really fix it on the Falcon you know.” Ben scoffed.   
“I doubt that. You’re just stalling at this point, now let’s go.” I huffed.  
“Fine.” I took the piece of metal and yanked on it, having no luck at dislodging it.  
“Come on Rey.”   
“Hang on, just a minute.” I braced a foot against the Falcon and yanked again.  
“Please be careful.” Ben yelled.  
“Meh!” I put my foot back down and stood on the top rung of the ladder and pulled in a different direction. It was so easy to pull that I fell backwards, taking the metal with me. “SHIT!”   
“REY!” Ben yelled. The next thing I know we both grunted as I landed in his arms. His strong arms caught me with ease, and it looked like he didn’t have to extort much energy to catch me. He sighed. “This is why I wanted you to come down. What if I hadn’t been here?” I shrugged against his chest.  
“Force?” I offered meekly.   
“You weren’t even thinking of it.” I looked at my hands on my legs.   
“I was too.” I mumbled. He sighed and shook his head.  
“I think our first lesson is developing a sense of self-preservation.”  
“Which she’ll need.” General Organa said as she looked at us with a smirking smile. “Especially for the next few days.” Ben and I both looked at her questioningly. “There might be a small gathering to celebrate Poe’s return, there might not be. Who can say?” Leia shrugged. “I guess you’ll both have to figure it out.” Leia walked away from both of us and I sighed.  
“Well, that happened.” I could feel Ben’s smirk so I looked up at him and his smirk.  
“Yes, yes it did. Now you actually have to do what I say.” I sighed.  
“You’re not going to make this easy on me are you?”  
“Why would I do that? Training with a Jedi is hard work thank you.” I huffed.  
“I don’t think you count. You didn’t do the trials with Luke.” He scoffed.  
“We both know I don’t need to, I’m the best Jedi in the world.”  
“You say that, but I’m right here.” He laughed.  
“We’ll see.” He smiled and I noticed I was still in his arms.  
“Can I touch the ground now please?” He looked taken aback, like he also forgot he was holding me.  
“Yeah, sure.” He set me back on my feet. “Time to fully begin your training.”  
“You know I was fine on my own.” He rolled his eyes.   
“You were vastly underprepared on your own and you still are vastly underprepared.”  
“Underprepared for what, exactly?” I crossed my arms over my chest.  
“For literally anything. The only reason you’ve been beating me is actually sheer luck. The time that we fought in the forest after you escaped.”  
“That’s not fair, that was my first time holding a saber!”  
“And you haven’t gotten much better.” I narrowed my eyes at him.   
“I was good enough to get you off my ass.” Ben sighed in frustration.  
“Yes, but mainly because you and the Rebellion were trying to blow up the base we were at.”  
“That didn’t happen until later! I knocked you down and then Poe managed to blow things up!” Ben groaned in frustration. This was not going well.  
“Rey, I let you pause to focus yourself. You took so long that I easily could have knocked you out or killed you, but I chose not to.”  
“I gave you that chance before and I won’t give it to you again.” It was my turn to groan.   
“I was taking it easy on you. And what about the first time we met? You couldn’t aim your blaster to save your soul.”  
“You were some freak in a helmet that I wasn’t expecting, and I was terrified of you!” I threw my hands in the air for effect.   
“You can keep throwing excuses or you can realize that you’re not good enough.” Ben gave the final stance and I narrowed my eyes.   
“Fine. I’ll keep throwing excuses.” Ben glared at me. “What? Is that a problem?” Ben was silent for a while.  
“Alright Rey, alright.” Ben nodded and I got on high alert for what he was about to do, because I knew it wasn’t going to be good. “Then let’s test that.” I knew he was going to move before he did. I drew my saber before he could draw his and I was already hitting him with blows. He was surprised and it took him a while to come back, but he did and he hit much harder than I’ve ever seen him.  
He started to hit and I couldn’t block, so I shot my hand out and pushed him back. He wasn’t expecting me to use the Force so I tried to take his saber, but he knew better than that. We stood there for the longest time fighting over the saber when I realized I was holding my own and I threw it at him, using the Force to propel it forward. He had to move out of the way to dodge and when he did I brought both sabers to my hands, holding them like dual swords. I smirked.   
As I ran forward Ben started remembering he had control of the Force as well and tried to block me from getting to him, but I knew that was coming. I clipped his saber to my belt and threw my hand out, focusing what I wanted on his hand and not the space in between. His hand threw up, forcing him on his back on the ground. I got to him moments later, foot on his chest and saber at his neck. His eyes were wide and incredulous.  
“Happy now?” I asked through panting. That took more effort than I thought it would. I noticed Ben panting a little too.   
“Your form was sloppy, your use of the Force took too long, and you fought me too long about the saber.” He said simply. I glared down at him and took his saber and threw it on his chest. I clipped mine back to my belt and walked away, not saying a word. “Rey, where are you going?” He shouted after. I could hear him getting to his feet to follow me.  
I kept ignoring his calls and headed right back to the Falcon. I saw a couple of people already there working on it, Poe being one of them.   
“Dameron!” I yelled to him and he turned around.  
“Rey! You here to fix this thing?” I smiled at him.  
“I’m here to help!”  
“No, she’s not, she’s going to eat and then we’re doing “Jedi nonsense” as you called it.” Ben came from behind me to yell at Poe. Poe glared at Ben.  
“Why don’t you let her decide for herself, Kylo?” Poe refused to call Ben by his name, instead calling him either Kylo or Kylo Ren. It always made me flinch a little bit.   
“Because I know what she needs, and it isn’t fixing this heap of trash.” Poe and I both gasped and Ben stiffened. I turned my head to glare at him.  
“Take. It. Back.” I mumbled loud enough for him to hear me. Ben huffed and rolled his eyes.  
“I’m not wrong, that thing has been put through torture and in the last few years it’s fallen into extreme disrepair.”  
“That’s why we have to fix it!” I. yelled. “If it gets the love it needs then she’ll be running just fine in no time.”   
“There’s nothing anyone here can do to make that happen, not by staying here anyway. You’d need another ship to go get parts for it.”  
“Poe, we’re going to make a list of what she needs and then you and I are going to go get it.” I looked at Poe and he smirked and nodded.   
“Sounds great. Let’s go see about parts, shall we?” He gestured to the Falcon and I started to go there, but a strong hand on my upper arm stopped me.  
“Rey don’t you dare do this.” I looked at Ben’s hard look. “Don’t you dare.”  
“Why not, Solo? Afraid I’ll be good at something you’re not?” I shoved his hand off my arm and walked next to Poe to the Falcon. I explained to him what I was doing with the scrap metal in the morning. He nodded along and had someone take the metal to a shop. We both got on ladders and started in on the large task ahead of us.   
By the end of the day Poe and I were covered head-to-toe in grease, dirt, and sweat. We were both laughing about the list that we made and we were making plans when we both caught a glance of General Organa’s harsh glare.   
“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Poe said more than asked. I sighed.  
“I think it’s more me in trouble than you.” Poe nodded.  
“Then I guess we’ll have to leave tonight for those parts.” He smirked and I laughed.  
“We don’t even know where we’ll find the parts we need, nor have we asked permission to go, and nor are we likely to get permission anytime soon.” Poe laughed.  
“You are operating under the assumption that I care.” I rolled my eyes but couldn’t keep the smile off my face. “I say we take a ship, go in the middle of the night, we take four or five hours, we’re back before dawn and no one’s the wiser.” I snorted.  
“I really don’t think you know how badly that would go, especially if we got caught.”   
“Then we won’t get caught. We’ll get Rose and Finn to cover for us, we’ll get that blonde girl to distract Ben or wait for him to fall asleep, and then that just leaves General Organa.” We both sighed.  
“That’s the biggest problem.” I broke the silence.  
“I think we just have to wait for her to go to sleep too. Come on, let’s go talk to Rose and Finn.” I smirked.  
“You’re serious about doing this, aren’t you?” Poe nodded enthusiastically.  
“Alright, I guess we’re doing this.” We both ran to find Rose and Finn to tell them about what we were planning. We finally found them going through some boxes. Poe ran through the plan, earing disapproving looks from both Rose and Finn, but he kept going and their faces smirked.  
“I think we can manage to cover for you.” Rose said with a laugh. Finn sighed.  
“I don’t like this, it seems too dangerous.” I looked at him and Poe gave him puppy eyes. “Fine, I guess I’ll help.” We all smiled and Poe and Finn did a handshake thing.  
“Guys this is going to be the best heist anyone has ever pulled.” Poe smirked. The four of us headed back to where the bulk of people were winding down for the evening. It was darker than I thought it would be.   
“You sure you’re good to do this?” Finn asked me. I nodded.  
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”   
“Will Ben be fine?” I scoffed.  
“He’ll live, trust me.” Finn sighed.  
“Look, I know you’re mad at him, but don’t go risking your neck to get his attention because you have basically all of it now.” I rolled my eyes.  
“Yeah right.” The four of us sat at a table, Poe and I were too excited to focus or eat and Finn pinched both of us.  
“If the two of you don’t calm down you’ll alert General Organa that you’re up to no good.” We all looked over to her table where she was giving us a funny look. I noticed Ben looking pointedly at his little guest. I rolled my eyes, which did not go unnoticed by Leia.   
“I think maybe I need to go away or something just so we don’t draw attention.” I mumbled to the table.” Poe nodded.  
“I’ll follow you. Where should we go?”  
“Want to go to the Falcon? That seems like something that we would do, right?” Finn nodded.  
“I swear the two of you spend more time with that Falcon than you spend sleeping.” Poe snorted.  
“Maybe Rey does, but I don’t.” Poe laughed and stood. “But that seems like a good idea. You guys should join us after your dinner date.” They both turned bright red and we both laughed as we left them on that note. I could feel Leia’s and Ben’s eyes on us as we made our way to the Falcon. I climbed the ladder and started fixing the stuff that didn’t require parts we didn’t have, while Poe worked as my assistant.   
“Hand me the wrench I used a minute ago.” I help my hand out and three seconds later there was a wrench in my hand.  
“Why don’t you try to configure those two together so you don’t have this problem?” I shook my head.  
“If I did that then you’d have to run them together and they’re not made for that kind of electricity.” I tightened a bolt and handed him the wrench back. “Nice question though.”  
“Just thought I would ask.” He looked out to where the others were. “I wonder when things are going to calm down.” I shrugged as Finn and Rose finally made their appearance. “About time you two!” Poe smiled.   
“We only came to tell you that General Organa went to bed shortly after you two left and Ben and that girl left a little while ago, but they didn’t head to the living spaces, they went somewhere else.” Poe and I looked at each other with worry.  
“We were going to have to wait anyway, we could just hope they don’t take too long.”  
“Trust me, with what I think he’s doing he’ll be done in twenty minutes.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m just saying that it’s very likely that that’s what’s happening and-.”  
“Don’t you have literally anything else to do?” I asked and he held his hands up in surrender.   
“Yeah, yeah.” Poe sighed. “Where is everyone else?”  
“Everyone is basically in bed by now.” Rose shrugged. “You guys could probably go right now if you wanted to. There’s a ship that’s fueled and ready for you that might not make as much noise.” Poe and I nodded.  
“I think I would feel safer if I knew where Ben was because he has this ability to sneak up on anyone because he’s so damn quiet.” Everyone laughed. “I don’t know how because he’s so tall, but he manages to be so quiet I would be more comfortable if someone were to know where he was right now and hope he’s busy or sleeping.” Rose nodded.  
“I think I can do that. Finn, keep your line open.” She took off to where the camp was and Finn shook his head.  
“I’m sure she won’t walk in on them having insane sex.” Poe mentioned. “Probably.” He shrugged. “Let’s hope she’s not scarred for life.”  
“Be nice.”  
“Why should I?” Poe grumbled and I dropped it. Soon Finn was looking intently at the ground and we knew he was talking to Rose.  
“Well, they’re definitely busy, but it’s talking and arguing. Not even the slightest kiss.” Poe and I both groaned. “Hang on, take this and go to the ship. Rose and I will create a distraction long enough for you guys to go.” I sighed.  
“The only thing that will do is make him wake his mother, which is what we don’t want. We should go sneak a blaster or two or nine.” Poe nodded.  
“Let’s go.” We got off the ladders and Finn followed us to the weapons armory. This wasn’t technically stealing if we were coming back, right? Poe picked up three blasters of a decent size and we went back. Even as the majority of the lights dimmed and turned off there was still no word of Ben and that girl. Poe sighed.  
“I know, be patient.” I said before he had the chance to say anything.  
“I need him to go to bed.” Finn looked at the ground and I pointed, getting Poe’s attention. Finn looked up and excited.  
“Guys, the blonde girl is in her bed with her room’s light just going out.”  
“What about Ben?”  
“He’s apparently in deep meditation.” I smirked at Poe who was grinning like a child.  
“It’s go time.” Finn nodded.  
“It’s past one in the morning, you guys have got to hurry.” We both nodded and took off running to the furthest ship in the lot of them. Poe and I got in and he typed in the coordinates and we were off to a quiet start.  
I should have known that it wouldn’t stay that way.  
Getting the parts wasn’t a problem, but the army on that planet was. Poe and I had to fight for most of the time we spent there. We were almost to the ship with the stuff we needed when they started blasting. Poe and I both took out our own blasters and fired back, me with two and Poe with one arm full of parts and the other with a blaster.   
“Rey, in front!” I looked and sure enough there were a lot of them coming from the front. I slid in front of him and slid my saber out, easily cutting them down and clipping it back to my belt. As I was clipping it back on there was a white-hot pain that shot through my right arm. I looked down to see my skin smoking from being grazed with a blaster. I fired back at them and they didn’t take the hits well.  
The gate on the ship was going to open any second now, but Poe needed more cover.  
“Go, start the thing and I’ll be on before the gate closes!” I stopped and aimed at them better when not running. For those that got too close I cut them down with my saber.  
“Rey!” I looked back and the ship was hovering, gate ready to roll.  
“Let’s go, Poe!” I fired a few more shots and then ran at the gate. I jumped and tried to use the Force to propel me forward, but something in my jump went wrong and there was a searing pain shooting through my left ankle. I landed on the gate ramp as it was closing and I just laid there in pain for a minute before I felt Poe take off into space, certain there was no one following us.  
“We did it!” I could hear Poe in the driver’s seat, happy as he could be. I still couldn’t move. “Rey?” He called. “Rey are you in here?”  
“Yeah.” I croaked out. I could hear quick footsteps from the front.  
“Holy shit, Rey, what happened?” He knelt by my middle and offered his help. I took his hand and he half-carried me to the passenger’s seat and I collapsed in it.  
“I jumped and my ankle said no.” This thing hurt like the dickens.   
“What happened to your arm?” I looked down, remembering I was grazed.  
“Well. I guess I’m just a mess.” Poe didn’t take the joke as well as I wanted him to.  
“Don’t worry kid, we’ll get you back soon. We should be back in half an hour.” I nodded and relaxed.  
“And you’re sure we got the right parts?”   
“Hell yeah, no way in hell. We inspected them right before we went through the door. They’re fine.” A single moment of silence. “I think I’m going to let Finn know that we’re on the way back and that you need medical help.”  
“Poe this is nothing, I’ll be fine.”  
“You need medical attention.” Poe was already putting in the call for Finn’s personal pager. A moment later he was talking. “Tell me, has anyone noticed we’re gone?” A moment. “Good, that’s even better. We’re about twenty minutes away, but Rey’s hurt real bad and needs help when we get back.” A longer moment of silence. “She got hit with a blaster and I think her ankle is twisted or something.” Another pause. “Sounds good.” He took the earpiece out of his ear.  
“So, I take it no one is awake and no one knows the better?” Poe smirked.  
“It’s the perfect plan, I told you. No one knows a thing and Finn is getting stuff ready for you. Wait, can’t you do that Jedi thing where you heal yourself?” I shook my head.   
“It doesn’t work on yourself.” Poe nodded.   
“I guess that makes sense.” I nodded too.  
“Yes it does.” The short remainder of the trip was passed in a pleasant silence. When we landed there were a few lights but nothing big, which meant Finn was alone.   
“Thank goodness.” Finn was the only one waiting for us when we opened the gate. Poe walked me out, one arm tightly around my middle and one holding my arm around his neck. I was leaning on him quite heavily.  
“Shit, Rey.” Finn ran up the ramp and put my other arm around his neck and they both basically carried me off the ship and lead me to sit down on a tall rock nearby. “You really did a number on yourself.” I smiled and nodded.  
“Did you expect something else?” He shook his head.  
“No.” He turned to Poe. “Do you need my help?” Poe came back with the only box we had, the three blasters on the top.   
“Nope, this is it!” The gate closed and we were breathing steadily. Poe put the box down and we spent a moment in silence.  
“I’m glad you guys are back.” Finn smiled. “Even if you’re a little broken.” Poe laughed.  
“Come on, let’s get her to the medical tent, or get her some form of help.” Poe picked up the box with one hand and offered me the other. I shook my head, opting to take Finn as my only escort. I limped and relied on Finn until we got more in the open and there was someone sitting at a table. We all froze, hoping they wouldn’t notice, but of course they did.  
Luckily it was Rose.  
“You guys are back.” She looked at me and her face became horrified. “What did you do?” I snorted.   
“Why do you assume that I was the one that did this to myself?” I asked as she got on the other side and I yet again had two living crutches to basically carry me to the medical tent. Since most of our people were healed the tent was empty, save for us. Finn and Rose sat me down on the closest bed and Rose started looking at my foot while Finn got some bandages for my arm.  
“You’ve really done a number on yourself today, Rey.” Rose examined. “Your ankle should be fine in a few days, but you definitely want to not put as much pressure on it and rest it as much as you can. That means no early-morning runs.” I huffed.  
“Yeah and don’t put too much strain on your arm or this will open up again. I would wear the higher arm bands for the next few days so no one get suspicious.” I nodded. “I hate it, you two actually pulled off the perfect heist.”  
“It wasn’t even a heist, more like a retrieval mission.” Poe said from the other table. “And you’re sure no one saw the two of you? Or us?” Finn nodded.  
“We are. Ben was nowhere to be found and Rose said that she saw that girl in her room turn off her light.” I nodded and sighed.  
“We might have actually pulled this off.”  
“Well we almost did. If you hadn’t gotten so hurt then we would be fine, but now that you’re hurt as badly as you are then someone might notice.” I nodded. “Just so we’re clear I’m not blaming you for getting hurt, I get it.” I let out a small laugh as Rose finished wrapping my ankle.  
“Really? I thought getting shot at was my fault.”  
“Well jumping and your ankle are your fault, but the other stuff is fine!” Poe smiled cheekily and I reached out to hit him, but he ducked out of the way before I could touch him. “Wait, couldn’t you tell if Ben was awake or asleep?” I shook my head.  
“I would have to go into his mind for that and I swore I never would again. We can only hope that he went to sleep after meditation.”  
“Oh he did. It wasn’t long after you two left that he sulked back to his room and went to sleep.” Rose shrugged. “I guess his conversation didn’t go as well as he wanted it to go.” She smiled. “Now then, I’m done if you are.” Finn nodded. “Then let’s get you back to your room so you can sleep!” I nodded and the two of them helped me off the table and helped carry me back. Poe dropped off the box of parts by the table and walked with us back to my room. Rose was the only one that came in and helped me physically get into my bed, for which I was grateful.   
“Goodnight Rose.” I smiled at her and she smiled back.  
“Goodnight Rey, feel better!”  
“Thanks!” With that she was gone, and I could finally relax. Sleep didn’t keep me long after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like last time, if you see any errors, please PM me and I will do what I can to fix them! Next chapter should be coming soon! Maybe even tonight (Jan 13th).


	3. Somebody's in Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The perfect heist's imperfect consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! Thank you for coming back for chapter 3 of my sleep-deprived trash wrapped up in words!

For once I didn’t have a nightmare, which felt great. The only thing that didn’t feel great was Rose waking me up because she and Finn didn’t want it to be obvious that we were out late this morning.   
“You’re usually awake long before this, but almost no one is awake, save for me, Finn, and Poe I think.” I nodded. “Do you need help with anything?”   
“I sure hope not, but I wouldn’t wander too far off in case.” Rose smiled.  
“Can do. I’ll be right outside your door.” I nodded and she closed the door. Since I fell into bed last night I decided to wash off a little bit before I got ready. The water was cold but it woke me up. Getting the top on wasn’t hard; my arm hurt a little but not much. The pants, however, were a different story: I got my weak leg in there fine, but when I had to stand on my ankle the searing pain came back and I almost fell over. Once I deemed that I looked like normal, I limped out my door to meet with Rose.  
“Here, I know it’ll look weird, but you need this.” I was grateful to be able to lean on her until we got to the table with the boys.   
“I see you’re not feeling much better this morning.” I shrugged at Poe.  
“My arms aren’t really feeling great either.”  
“I’ll change your bandage tonight.” I nodded.  
“Thanks.”  
“Do you think you’ll be able to stand the bandage underneath the long sleeves?” I nodded.  
“Should be a piece of cake.” I smirked. “Nothing is too hard for the best Jedi ever.” They all laughed. Poe told the story of how we managed to get the parts, including how I jumped and that’s how my ankle got torn up. Finn busted out laughing at that one.   
“Why does that not surprise me? You tried to look cool and ended up getting hurt.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed.  
“I don’t know why it doesn’t surprise you, I always look cool doing literally everything.”   
“Speaking of doing literally anything, feel like laying down and installing parts?” I smirked at Poe who’d asked the question.   
“Sure do.” I got up and limped to follow Poe to the Falcon. It was still basically empty on the base so we got started on the quieter stuff that we needed to fix, adding the parts that she needed.  
“Do you think you could climb a ladder?” Poe asked as we were going to install new hyperdrive function parts. I looked up and sighed.  
“I probably can.” I limped over a little and started climbing, the experience harder than I thought it would be.  
“Again, if you can’t then just fall and I’ll catch you, no problem.” I huffed.   
“I’m almost there, I’m going to be fine.”  
“You’re really not almost there, but alright. I’ll go get the parts.” By the time he was back I was seated at the top of the ladder and ready to go. “Alright, better than I expected.” Poe climbed the ladder next to mine and we both got busy installing the new parts. There was one big part that required both of us to do the same thing at the same time, which flew by with little to no effort.  
“This is easier than I expected it to be.” I noted.  
“Good, that means you can train today.” I almost fell off my ladder when that voice came from under me. I looked down and there were two intense brown eyes looking back up at me with sternness.   
“Yay for me.” I muttered as I tightened a bolt. “Give me a few minutes to finish the group effort and I’ll be down soon.” A grunt was my only response. Poe and I tightened the same bolt to the same tension and we were done with that part. There were still a few smaller ones that it needed, but Poe could do that without me. “I’m done.”  
“Would you like to come down normally today or would you like to fall again?” I gave him a look and then rolled my eyes.  
“I think I’ll come down normally.” I swung my leg over the top and started my descent down, Poe’s worried eyes on me the entire time. My ankle hurt like hell, but I bit my tongue and dealt with it so Ben wouldn’t know something was up. I landed on the ground in no time.  
“You came down.” I nodded.  
“As I said I would.”  
“You didn’t really give me much trouble.”  
“Because the Falcon is almost back up to speed and I trust Poe to finish from here.” I shrugged. “I told you that yesterday, if you had just listened to me, I wouldn’t have kicked your ass again.”   
“Your form was sloppy, use of-.”  
“Yeah, I get it, I suck. Let’s just get this over with.” I walked away from him, neither of us saying a word until we got to the meditation spot we both used. I was about to start when he stopped me.  
“We’re going to start with something else right now.” I raised an eyebrow. “I want you to stand there and tell me what you feel by standing.” I sighed but closed my eyes. “Face each direction and describe what you feel coming and going from each direction.” I opened my eyes to look at him. “Just trust me.” I shrugged and did as he said, changing directions as he wanted.  
“What was the purpose of that again?”   
“You’ll see.” He looked at me strangely. “Why are you favoring your right leg this morning?” I looked down.  
“Am I?” I shrugged. “I guess I slept on it funny.” He nodded with a strange nod.  
“I suppose. Now stand as straight as you can, reach for the stars and stand on the core of this planet.” I sighed and tried to do as he said. After a moment something hit the back of my right knee, making me fall face-forward into the dirt. I coughed up some of the dirt that got into my mouth. I tuned on my back to look at him.  
“The hell was that for, Solo?” He looked at me with a hard look.  
“Why are you favoring your right leg this morning?”  
“Didn’t we just go over this? I don’t know, I don’t feel it.”   
“No, you gave me a bull shit answer to get me off your back. I want the truth and I want it now: why are you favoring you right leg this morning?”  
“I already told you the truth: I slept on it funny. I haven’t done anything to make it hurt except maybe that.” He huffed, clearly not believing me. He bent down and picked me up, holding me close to his chest. He walked over a few meters and sat me on a taller rock so he could stand between my legs and get in my face.  
“That’s not the truth and we both know it.” He said darkly and softly. “I’m going to give you one last chance before I have my mother interrogate your little friends about why you’re favoring one leg over the other.” I sighed, not easy with his proximity.  
“I twisted my ankle.” He looked at me and then backed up to look at my feet.  
“The left ankle I’m assuming.” I nodded and he took my left foot in his hand, lifting the pant hem up so he could see the bandage. “Who wrapped this?”  
“Rose did.” He nodded.  
“She’s very good at it.” I nodded. “How is it?” I shrugged.  
“Not bad, not good.” Ben nodded and I knew there was more coming.  
“Tell me, how did this happen?” I sighed.  
“I was jumping around, and it twisted.”   
“Uh huh. Pray tell me why you were jumping around?” He looked at me expectantly.  
“Poe and I were goofing off.”  
“I see, and where were the two of you goofing off? Again?” I narrowed my eyes. This line of questioning was making me nervous.   
“By the Falcon.” I said tentatively. “Is there a problem?” He shrugged.  
“I don’t know.” He came closer, back to his original spot between my thighs to get closer to me. “It just seems very fishy to me that I found you and Poe fixing the Falcon this morning with parts you didn’t seem to have yesterday, and that it just so happens that the day that you magically come into these parts you also have a limp. It’s funny to me that you didn’t do those things yesterday, when you didn’t have a limp. But I think I remember someone saying that we didn’t have the parts to fix the ship, yet they’re here this morning, the same morning you have a limp.” I sighed.  
“Whatever connections you’re trying to make are useless. Remember the scrap metal I was peeling off the other day? I saved it to make parts.” Ben nodded, not leaving.  
“So you mean to tell me that you got a limp by goofing around with Poe the same time that you were making parts?” I nodded. Ben put his hands on either side of my hips and leaned in a breath away from my face. “Final answer?”  
“Yeah, that’s it.” I whispered, heart racing at how close he was. I could trace the curvature of his mouth from here. They were full, but not overly so. They looked soft, even in the hard line they were making right now.   
“Why don’t you tell me what really happened?”  
“That IS what happened!”  
“No it isn’t. You haven’t had time to make that many parts, and they wouldn’t look nearly as new as those do.” I turned my head away from his intense stare. “You can either tell me or I’ll tell my mother that you, Poe, Finn, and Rose stole a ship to go steal them.” I shrunk back a little, looking further away from his face. “Wait, is that what happened?” I didn’t answer and one of Ben’s hands came up and forced me to look at him. “Rey, did you, Poe, Finn, and Rose take a ship and steal those parts?” He asked, and I knew it was the last time.  
“We didn’t steal them, we did pay for them, and with the extra Poe got gas so he could fuel the ship without anyone noticing and he put the extra fuel with the storage.” Ben’s face stayed incredulous for a moment before he could talk.  
“You…you guys took a ship, without asking my mother, went off on some dangerous mission for parts, without asking my mother, and expected to get away with it?”  
“The only reason you know about it is because you guessed!”  
“I was thinking of the most ridiculous thing you could possibly do, I didn’t expect that you actually did it!” Ben yelled. “Have you lost your mind? You could have been seriously hurt, hell you were! Hux could have been out there waiting for you, he could have followed you! Are you crazy?” Ben kept yelling.  
“We took precautions!” Ben scoffed loudly.  
“I’m sure you and Poe, the two most self-sacrificing people on this planet, took precautions.” He shook his head, still just as close to mine. “What happened?” I sighed and told a lighter story of how we waited for everyone to fall asleep. I left out the part where I almost got shot and skipped to me jumping onto the gate and twisting my ankle.  
“That’s all, I promise.” He gave me a look.  
“Let me see your right arm.” I raised my eyebrows.   
“Why?” I asked, cradling my right arm to my chest.  
“Here’s the thing: remember when I told you that your fear woke me up? Well I think I felt your ankle get hurt, but there’s something else: I think I also felt your arm. Now let me see your arm before I yank it.” I sighed but handed my arm over. I waited in suspense as he unwound the arm wrap and saw the bandage. He untied Finn’s knot and revealed the nasty gash. He stared at it before bringing his other hand up to the wound and closed his eyes. I took his hand and pushed it away lightly.  
“No, it’s fine, really. Don’t worry about it.” Ben gave me a look and immediately went back to healing my arm. I felt the skin close and it felt better. “Thanks.” I mumbled. He sighed and rested his head on my shoulder and I froze.  
“This is huge, why would you try to hide it from me?”   
“You would never have let me do it. We needed those parts and you would never have let me go if you thought there was even the smallest danger.” Ben picked his head up to look me in the eye.  
“Because I care, Rey. You can’t just up and go to some random planet and not tell anyone where you were going.”  
“Rose and Finn knew.”  
“Weren’t they with you?” I shook my head.  
“I told you we took precautions. I thought it would be best if they stayed here as our points of contact.” Ben nodded. “It needed to happen and now we don’t have to worry about it.” Ben sighed. “I know you’re mad, but this is a good thing.” Ben looked like a lost puppy.  
“I wish I could just take that, but you know what I have to do now.” I shook my head.  
“No, there’s no need for that.” Ben was already picking me up again. “No, no please no. We don’t need to do this, there’s no need to inform General Organa about this, she’s fine, we’re all fine.” Ben was walking back.  
“You know as well as I do that you and Poe broke the rules, many of them, and she needs to know.”  
“No, no she doesn’t, we’re fine, thank you for your concern, but we are fine.” Ben sighed as we came into sight of the camp.  
“That’s strange.” I looked at where he was looking and saw Poe standing at Leia’s table with his head down and her face full of exasperation. The blonde girl was there as well. I felt the color drain from my face.  
“Oh no.”  
“Oh yes.” Ben kept walking forward with me in his arms. When Leia saw us she stood and Poe turned around, face red as a tomato.   
“Ah, your accomplice I assume.” Leia said. She crossed her arms over her chest. “You know I’ve half a mind to ban the two of you from the celebration, but seeing as Poe is one of the people we’re celebrating and that the two of you got a job done, I guess I have to find another punishment.” Leia looked to me. “What happened?”  
“She twisted her ankle and got grazed by a blaster.” Ben answered for me. Poe narrowed his eyes at Ben. “She’ll be fine, I healed her blaster wound, but the ankle is something that needs to heal on its own.” Leia nodded  
“I know.” She sighed. “I cannot believe the two of you snuck out of the safety of this camp to fix some ship that we might not even be able to use.”  
“It’s blatant disregard for your authority and of Rebellion resources.” The blonde girl spoke and I felt Ben stiffen. “I think they should be punished.”  
“Zena I did not say they would not be punished, I’m merely thinking through what they should do.”  
“Are you taking suggestions?” She smirked.  
“No.” Leia said simply. I resisted a smile, but Poe let his smirk out. The girl glared at Poe and then turned that glare on me. I turned my head to look at my hands and then I looked up at Ben.  
“You don’t have to keep carrying me, I can walk.” Ben looked at me and gave me a half smile.  
“This is nothing, I’m good. Besides your ankle needs to heal and that means you have to stay off of it.” I huffed.  
“I was trying to until someone kicked my knee.” Leia raised her eyebrows.  
“What’s this?” Ben blanched.  
“Well she was hiding important information and I didn’t know how to get it out of her any other way except invading her mind, so I had to get creative about it.” Leia sighed.  
“The five of you, Finn and Rose included, will be the literal death of me.” I smiled sheepishly. “Poe, keep fixing the Falcon.”  
“It’ll be good tonight!” Poe went back to the Falcon.  
“As for you, Rey, you need to go rest until your ankle is better.”  
“It really isn’t that bad.” I felt Ben’s head moving, so I looked up to see him nodding, contradicting me. “It isn’t.”  
“Then why can’t you even stand?” The blonde girl, Zena, muttered. Ben rolled his eyes without her noticing.  
“In any case you still need to rest your ankle. Ben, take her back to her room and keep her company for the rest of the day. I’m sure there’s something the two of you can do that’s productive.” Ben blushed but nodded, heading to my room.  
“You really don’t have to carry me everywhere. If you carry me everywhere I go I’ll get used to it and my ankle will never heal properly.” Ben huffed.  
“The risk outweighs the benefit.”  
“What benefit could there possibly be to carrying me around like a child?” I asked and crossed my arms. Ben smirked.  
“I’ll know where you are and if I’m holding onto you then you can’t run away, can you now? It’s the perfect plan.”  
“Not for me it isn’t. I’d like to be able to use my feet you know.” I huffed and then remembered what Leia was saying. “Wait, what celebration for Poe? He doesn’t need one of those.” Ben snorted.  
“Neither of you do, but here we are.” Ben shook his head. “My mother thinks morale is at an all-time low, and so now we have to have a party. It’s apparently supposed to be a big deal.”   
“We don’t need a party, we need a plan.”  
“You think we don’t know that?” I sighed.  
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. Don’t you think we should be focused on something else right now? Like the ginger you left alive? Or the impending doom?”  
“I know you think it’s a waste of time, but trust me, parties do things to people. These people are scared and a time-waster like this could help them calm down and stop making problems and mistakes.” I sighed.   
“Whatever you say, Solo. Whatever you say.” Ben smiled as he set me on my chair.  
“Did you want there or on your bed?” The blush still dusted his cheeks.  
“No, this is fine. So, great Jedi, what are we doing today?” He huffed.  
“Since you decided to hurt yourself last night, the only thing I can think to do is meditate, so get on it.” I rolled my eyes and stood up, causing Ben to shoot to my side and wrap a strong arm around my waist. “Woah, careful there.” I rolled my eyes.  
“I literally am just going to the floor, there’s no reason to react like this.” Ben didn’t let go until I was sitting on the ground. “I was fine.”  
“Don’t care.” He sat across from me and we both tried to meditate. I managed to concentrate for a little bit, but Ben was distracting me. I preferred solitary meditation. I sighed.  
“I can’t focus.” Ben smirked.  
“I know, I can feel it. So, what’s on the brain? Are you tired from your adventure? You must not have gotten a lot of sleep.” I shrugged.  
“I guess not. I woke up later than I usually do.”   
“I’m impressed. I thought you always woke up with nightmares.” I rolled my eyes.  
“I don’t wake up with nightmares that often.” Ben scoffed.  
“Yeah right.”  
“I do not!” Ben shook his head.  
“Sure you don’t. Come on, what do you want to do today?” I shrugged.  
“I would like to help Poe with the Falcon, but I think we both know how well that would turn out.” Ben sighed.  
“You and that ship, and I guess that fighter pilot.” I smirked.  
“Come on now, I think if you got to know him then you would like him.” Ben rolled his eyes.  
“I highly doubt that I would like someone like Poe Dameron.” I sighed.  
“Come fix your dad’s ship with me and a fighter pilot.” Ben shook his head.   
“I’ll bring you there but I don’t want to stay around that group. I don’t think Poe likes me very much.”  
“He doesn’t, but that’s because he doesn’t know you like I do. Come now, let’s get to know each other. If you’re going to trust each other to fight on the same side then you two have to start somewhere.” Ben looked at me for a moment and then smiled.  
“If you wish it, so shall it be.” I rolled my eyes and smiled with excitement.   
“No need to be weird, just come on and help me.” Ben nodded.  
“As you wish.” Ben started toward me but I shook my head.  
“No, just let me borrow you for a moment.” He hesitated, but he held a hand out to me. I took it and he pulled me up with ease. Once I was standing, he put an arm around my waist and I put my arm around his neck. It felt a little awkward since he was so much taller than me, but it was nice to be this close to him.  
I shook those thoughts out of my head as we walked to the Falcon. Poe was elbow deep inside the Falcon but smiled when he saw us.  
“Rey, you break out of your jail cell?”  
“We both did.” I squeezed Ben’s shoulder. “I brought reinforcements with me.” Poe stiffened.   
“That’s great. Send him up here.” Poe couldn’t keep the stiffness out of his voice.   
“No way, he’s my assistant today.” I shouted back up. The relief washed over Poe in waves.   
“Sounds good, Rey. I haven’t touched the bottom, so go for that first.”   
“Can do, Dameron.” I turned to Ben. “You ready, my assistant?” I fluttered my eyelids and he rolled his eyes.  
“Call me that one more time and I’ll let you go.” I laughed and he smiled brightly. “Where are we going now, mechanic?”  
“We go that way.” I started in the direction that I wanted to go and Ben followed easily. I got down to my knees to lay down and Ben didn’t let go until I was on the creeper. “Hand me that box please?” Ben did as I asked and I started getting what I needed as Ben looked at the Falcon.   
“You really care about this heap, don’t you.” I looked at him.  
“You know it’s okay to care about something that your father cared about too, right? Your mom cares for this ship too.”  
“I know, but it’s just a ship.” I shrugged.  
“That may be, but that doesn’t change anything about what I just said.” I laid down on the creeper. “Push me a little under the ship please.” He nodded and gently pushed me where I needed to be. It took a little more effort than I would have liked, but I did eventually start getting some real work done. I occasionally asked Ben for something and he got it without hesitation.   
“Are you almost done?” He asked around two or three hours after we started. I sighed.  
“No, I am not almost done.” I huffed. “If you’re bored then I don’t mind finishing this up by myself you know.”   
“I don’t want to leave you alone.”  
“It’s fine. I know your mom said to stay with me, but I think I’ll be okay. Come back in a few minutes, okay?” He sighed.  
“I guess so.”  
“Brighten up, cupcake.” Ben made a noise and walked off to the sound of me giggling. It took most of the next hour to get everything in order, but I eventually did and put the cover back on. I smirked as I tried rolling myself out, but a hand on the creeper did it for me. Coming out it revealed Ben.  
“I came back.” He smiled.  
“Look at that, I told you what to do and you did it.” I smirked. “Does that mean that I’m the teacher now?” Ben rolled his eyes with a smirk.  
“You wish. Come on, it’s past your feeding time.” I hit him in the arm, and he laughed.  
“What do you mean ‘past my feeding time’ meanie?” He laughed more.  
“Nothing, but it’s past your feeding time. You are my pet and now it’s time to feed you.” I rolled my eyes as Poe ran up beside me.  
“Hey, did you need me to finish up?” I shook my head.  
“I got it done. How are you doing with the upper half?” Poe smirked.  
“It’ almost done. She’ll be done by nightfall.”  
“That’s good. After that we can form a plan, send in people for spying. There’s so much we can do after we finish this thing.” Poe smiled.  
“We can do that after my party.” I sighed.  
“I don’t think it’s your party, more like you’re one of the people it’s being thrown for.”  
“Mm, I would have to disagree with you on that. I can assume, then, that you’ll be there.” I sighed again.  
“That depends on this stupid ankle.” I raised my leg, leaning on Ben a little more. “If it works then we’ll see.”  
“Can’t you just Force the thing better?” He smiled at his terrible joke.  
“Her ankle injury is something that’s a little too deep for Force healing to occur, it needs to heal on its own for it to heal properly.” Ben said smartly. Poe’s smile faded a little.  
“Yeah.” There was a stiff tension between the three of us.   
“Well I’m sure it’ll be fine by the time that this thing happens.”  
“You know it’s tomorrow night, right?” My head shot to his face. “Yeah, it’s tomorrow night. Hope you’re ready to party.”  
“Yikes, no thanks, I think I’ll be good.”   
“No, no, no, Rey-Bay, you’ve got to come now.”  
“I’m sorry, what did you just call me?” Poe smirked.  
“I called you Rey-Bay. Got a problem? Should I do something else? I could be anti-creative and call you my Rey of Sunshine.” Ben’s grip tightened but he remained silent.   
“How about Rey, let’s just do that.” Poe shook his head.  
“No way. I think I’m going to keep going until I find something that stops every show.” I sighed.  
“I’m not getting out of this, am I?” Poe shook his head slowly. “Can I get out of this?” Poe laughed.   
“Absolutely not.” I groaned as he laughed. “I’ll see you tonight and then tomorrow at my party.” He jogged back to the Falcon, leaving me with Ben. He didn’t say a word as we kept walking to the tables in the front.   
“You good there?” Ben only nodded as he sat me on the bench and left. He came back with two lunch boxes and sat down next to me without a word. Neither of us touched the food inside the boxes and instead sat in silence. After a moment I hit his shoulder with my head.  
“What?” The question came out stressed and frustrated.   
“Poe really bothers you, doesn’t he?” Ben sighed and rolled his eyes, becoming fidgety.  
“No, he does not.” He spat out through his teeth.  
“Yes he does. What is the deal with the two of you? I know the two of you have a history, but there’s no reason-.”  
“It’s fine.” He snapped and stormed off into the woods, leaving me alone. I sighed and got up from the table, knowing he would need some time by himself. I went back to my room and was able to meditate until there was a knock on my door.  
“Enter.” I called and the door opened, revealing a smiling Leia. “General Organa, how can I help you?”  
“I came to see how you were. You and Ben didn’t seem to be getting along this afternoon and he’s still sulking.” I smiled.  
“Why does that not surprise me?” Leia laughed.  
“He sulks a lot. So, I assume Poe told you about the gathering tomorrow night.” I nodded and she looked around. “I may have a few surprises for you tomorrow night.” I quirked an eyebrow.  
“A few surprises? What kind of surprises?” She smirked.  
“I guess you’ll have to find out. “  
“Oh, I don’t think I like that very much.” Leia laughed.  
“I’m sure you don’t, and I’m sure you won’t like them very much, but I still want to do it.” I smiled.  
“I would be honored with whatever it is.” Leia smiled and nodded.  
“So, shall we go to dinner? Are you going to sit at my table tonight or are you going to continue avoiding my son?” She gave me a pointed look.  
“Now I feel bad.” She smiled.  
“Good. Come.” I did as she said and followed her to her table. I saw Ben but no blonde (Zena). Leia all but shoved me in the seat next to Ben and Ben stiffened a little. I nudged his arm with my elbow and he looked at me.   
“What?” I gave him a look and he melted a little. “What?” He asked in a nicer tone.  
“You’re angry. Why?” He sighed.  
“Poe Dameron is the most annoying person I’ve ever met.”  
“I don’t think so. I think Hux would be more annoying than Poe ever could be.”  
“At least Hux could think about planning and didn’t just do things without thinking about the consequences.”  
“Are we still talking about me and him going to get those parts?”  
“Yes! I don’t like that he took you on a dangerous mission, told almost no one, that I wasn’t one of the people that he told, and he seems to not care.” He took a big breath. “I don’t like that no one told me that you were leaving. I should have known.”  
“You never would have let me go. You would have gotten your mother and then we wouldn’t be able to fix the Falcon.”  
“How do you know what I would have done?”  
“Your reactions to my actions since you’ve been here can’t tell me enough?”   
“No, they can’t. You can’t tell me what I would or wouldn’t do based on my reactions to your stupid decisions.” I quirked an eyebrow at him.  
“What Poe and I did was a stupid thing and you just said that you only reacted negatively to stupid things that I do, so I can only assume that you wouldn’t let me do what I wanted last night.”  
“Because it was a dangerous move and you shouldn’t have done it.”  
“I couldn’t leave Poe by himself, I had to go.”  
“I would have gone for you.” He said quickly. “I would have gone so you didn’t have to. I don’t want you to put yourself in situations that you can’t handle.”  
“I handled myself.” He scoffed.  
“Your ankle is twisted, and you got shot. How is that handling yourself?”   
“I’m not dead, so that’s a start.” I gave me a look.  
“That doesn’t qualify at all. You should have told me, and I would have gone for you. I could have handled everything better and you wouldn’t be in pain.” I sat and looked at him for a while, long enough for his eyes to soften, revealing the source of his anger.  
“You were worried.” He started. “You were worried about me.” He sighed.  
“So what?” He mumbled, which made me smile.  
“I think you’re expressing your concern by yelling at me, and I think it’s unfair. It’s okay to be worried you know.” He sighed.  
“I know. I don’t like doubting you because I know you can handle things, but I hate that you went without me, and you went with Poe Dameron of all people.”  
“Why do you not trust him?”  
“He’s just like you.”  
“Didn’t you just say you wanted to trust me?”  
“Yes, but I meant he’s just like you meaning he would die in an instant without giving it even half a thought. The two of you doing something dangerous is a bad situation. The two of you are the most self-sacrificing people on this planet, not to mention the least cautious people on this planet.” I smiled at him.  
“You just have to trust me to fight the way you do.” He gave me a startled look. “I do pick things up from you, you know.”   
“I know, but-.”  
“No, no buts. I’m okay. I know you worry, but I’m fine.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “I promise, I’ll be fine.” I sighed. “I’m your Rey of sunshine, remember?” He smiled and put his hand on mine.  
“I know, and you’re my student-dad.” We both laughed a little and I could see some of the tension leave his shoulder.   
“Are you less mad at me now?” He smiled, hand still on mine.  
“I was never mad at you. I was only worried and upset that I couldn’t go for you.”  
“I told you, if you keep doing things for me then I’ll never learn.”   
“I know.” We sat like that for a while, just staring at each other for a moment. Just when the moment seemed like it was going to go down a more intimate thing, Leia came over and sat next to me. We both pulled apart and I could feel the blush creep up to my cheeks.   
“So, can I assume that the two of you are better now?” She asked the two of us.  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about mother.” Ben groaned. I giggled and the rest of the evening went with a comfortable air. Ben and I stayed at the table long into the night until he walked me into my bed.  
“See you tomorrow for training?” I asked him. He smiled.  
“Look at you listening to your teacher for once. Your ankle okay?” I nodded.  
“It should be better tomorrow. I’ll be ready to take you to the ground again.” I smirked and he rolled his eyes.  
“I let you do that once and now it’s all you can talk about.”  
“I could talk about me beating you the first time around instead if you would like.” He laughed once.  
“No thanks, let’s not.” He looked at me with softness in his dark brown eyes. “Goodnight Rey.”  
“Goodnight Ben.” He turned and shut the door and I looked at the ceiling. Sleep did not keep me waiting that night, which surprised me.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'll see you guys next chapter!! Also if you see any mistakes, feel free to PM me!


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